The Royals tied a club record against the Red Sox with 20 hits. The first time was on August 2, 1987, in a 13-5 Royals win. (The Royal team record is 26 hits, against the Tigers on September 9, 2004. It was the first game of a doubleheader in Detroit, and Kansas City won 26-5. The Tigers won the nightcap 8-0.)

One bright spot: Victor Martinez doubled and homered in his first two trips to the plate, driving in four runs.

AL East: The White Sox beat the Rays 5-2, the Yankees beat Cleveland 8-2, and the Blue Jays shut out the Orioles 5-0. And so we are back in fourth, 6.5 GB, with New York 3.5 and Toronto 5.5.

The Mets finished a three-game "perfect" sweep of the Phillies: 8-0, 5-0, 3-0! Philadelphia has scored only three runs in its last five games. Runs scored in last nine games: 1, 1, 5, 5, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0.

Didn't Girardi do some obvious stalling in one of the games in the opening series? It was Youk I think on 1B, and he was standing a step away from the bag, and they kept throwing over to first waiting for the reliever to be ready. That pissed me off with West's comments on that series, because he was letting them stall.

I was at last night's game, and my question is, why was I the only one booing when West was announced?

LOL, I saw Cabin Mirror sitting there during the Papi at-bat. I type slowly and right after I hit "publish", they show him on NESN and Remy says, "Maybe that's why Tito's not in his usual seat - he doesn't want to listen to Millar's advice all night."

How the hell are we losing to the Royals for the second night in a row after the roll we've been on lately? I understand that you lose a game here and there, even to the lowliest teams. But 2 straight? At home? The Royals? Oh yeah, we haven't actually lost this one yet, have we? :)So still we watch

Having voiced my eternal optimism, I must say - If we don't lose this one, we sure have missed a damn good chance to lose one. WTF was up with Wake? No movement tonight?I wonder if he would blame it on the shift to non-starting duty, and therefore less of a rhythm?